National Aeronautics and Space Administration Office of Public Affairs Washington, D.C. For Release: Tuesday, December 13, 1966

Number 66-318

THREE SURVEYORS ELIMINATED FROM PROGRAM

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has eliminated three Surveyor soft lunar landing spacecraft from current budget planning.

The spacecraft eliminated are the 8th through 10th Surveyors H, I & J - planned to supplement the current seven spacecraft program. The three spacecraft were planned to weight 2500 pounds (as compared with 2200 pounds for the current series) and would have carried additional scientific instruments.

The decision to eliminate the last three Surveyors was based on successful results obtained from the Ranger project, two Lunar Orbiters, and two Surveyors already launched. It was determined that the five remaining Surveyor spacecraft now on order should provide enough information about the moon to support the Apollo manned lunar landing mission, when added to data already obtained.

Surveyor is managed for NASA by its Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. The Surveyor spacecraft is built by the Hughes Aircraft Company, Culver City, California.

The first of a series of Surveyor spacecraft, designed to soft land on the moon, will be launched from Cape Kennedy during a launch period beginning next Monday, May 30, and ending Friday, June 3.

The press room will be open at JPL at 6:30 a.m. Monday. The Launch window for the first day is from 7:40 a.m. to 8:27 a.m.

Commentary on the mission will be provided during major events. The flight time to the moon will be about 63 hours. If Surveyor succeeds in the soft landing and returns lunar photographs to earth, picture release will be at JPL.

The following public information people will be available during the mission.